tenth

October slipping 

the moon swelling once again

the sea still calling

lifting

 the sun rises

like the moan of a

midnight child

unbidden

calling, tugging

kiss me       one last time

before I wake

you fade

too soon

You did this

Listen to my dream

  Floating in the blue

  calm waters

  deep and dark and cool and moving

I am only me

alone and floating

in the deep blue

You are a whisper all around me

hair like tendrils reaching out

a whisper floating

I am only me and you

moving in the water

free

Are Britons just too angry?

My family isn't the jet setting sort. I travel a great deal and spend a fair bit of time in the air. As does my uncle who is visiting me in Japan just now. But it's not common for 4 or 5 or more members of my extended family to have travel plans at the same time. So i think it is a bit funny when I think about the timing of the current, or recently ended ban on flying in Europe.

It is amazing that there could be an all out ban on flying, thinking how much money is involved in travelling. But personally I'd rather sleep at an airport a few days, or delay my vacation than fly into a cloud that has the potential to turn my plane engines into glass...I am one who lives by the philosophy of choose life.

I suppose that many Europeans don't live by that philosophy which is why they seem to be so angry about the trouble. I think it is absurd to get angry about the weather. Isn't it? Isn't it a little bit absurd to get angry about a volcanic eruption? I mean this is the first time every... every that a volcano has felt the need to erupt in commercial airspace... you think people would be a little bit tolerant of the fact that this has never happened before.

It's like if you were flying into somewhere that was at that moment having an earthquake... would you really want the plane to land? Or would you prefer it was rerouted or delayed... Is it really something to get angry about. Now I know that its hard when you are stranded and don't really have money for a hotel or have a friend in the area with a couch you can crash on, which is a good time to make some friends, and I think European hostels should have been making a move on airports advertising their cheap beds and busing people to and from to help them get through the problem.

But I read the news reports and there are words "infuriated" and "irate" and "angered" being used and it just makes me think, man I hope i never have to go to Europe and meet all these people who can't recognize that sometimes things that HAVE NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE happen and that when they do, we have no plans in place, and perhaps erring on the side of caution is nicer than allowing people to die and expensive equipment to be damaged, when a lot of patience and willingness to accept that when things that HAVE NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE happen, we don't always choose the best way to deal with them.

Rie

I watched her come home and quietly put the medal in the trophy case. And I thought, she is finished with skiing, now. I have a marathon medal just like that. It says marathon on it, but I know it was only 5ks.

She said, "thanks for all your help with the trip. Everyone had a great experience." She looked at the case and then closed the glass door. "Uh," she started.

I've started biting my cheek, I thought. And wondered when the habit started.

I asked her to help me make a flyer for some new classes. She agreed and said she would come back a little later. I agreed that was best.

Later, her mother said she would send the flyers from Tokyo. I thought as much.

That evening my student said to me, "Why can you speak Japanese?" I said, because I like to tell stories. He didn't understand. But thinking about it now, I do like to tell stories.

Dancing on water

the swan glides sleepily across the black lake
is watched
followed
a simple mystery

you ask, he tells you of all his dancing
of the feel of webbing against water
the beading rain on feathers

he tells you of the flight from Montana
of the nest he built
of the one he loved

if only you could hear his voice as more than a beautiful song
you would hear his wit
understand his smile
know the content, not just the intent of his mind

Tchaikovsky knew it.
the swan will glide. Silent,
in so many ways.

A strange sort of breeze

It was a summer for falling in love. It was a breeze off the ocean in a land unimagined. You always imagine lands unimaginable. In dreams, day dreams and Friday midday naps. But they are usually like home when you imagine them. But not when you encounter them. They are like nothing you have ever imagined when you encounter them. And when you do, encounter them, you think why didn't I imagine this sooner, it is so unimaginable. And it dawns on me the reason this word has meaning.

But there was the breeze. The light and playful air. And a light on the water, as we slipped by. It was a light present. Unexpected. Gifted nonetheless. White light on silky black. and then gone.

as we slipped into the night.